Fireflies
by Phillozophy
Summary: In which Zelda and Link go out on a midnight escapade to look at fireflies. Why? Because Zelda said so, that's why.


**Disclaimer:** i dont own zelda btw

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"Z-Zelda, I don't think this is a good idea…"

"Shush, Link." I press my index finger to my lips and smile. "It'll be okay."

Link nervously twiddles his fingers. "But if we're caught, we'll be in a lot of trouble, y'know…"

"Oh, c'mon!" I groan, clapping my hands on his shoulders. "The fireflies are out tonight! We gotta go look at 'em!"

We're in my room right now, I'm sitting on the bed and Link is sitting cross-legged on the floor, hugging the big Loftwing plushie I got for Karane's birthday and pouting. It's past our bedtime; we were supposed to be asleep hours ago, but we were having so much fun and we kinda forgot about that.

"C'mon, Link. Just 'cause you're a sleepy baby doesn't mean _I_ am." I say, smug. This'll rile him up, it always does.

"'M not a baby, Zel. Or sleepy." He mumbles, burying his face into the feathers of the blue Loftwing.

"Link is a sleepy baby~!" I sing song, twirling around in a happy dance.

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Then let's go see the fireflies!"

"Am no-, wait, huh?"

I grab his hand, giggling quietly to myself as I hear him squeak from the abrupt contact, he's never been good with that sort of thing, and pull him to his feet, the plushie dropping, squeaking, and rolling to the floor.

Hmm… How should we leave…

Out the chimney. That's the only acceptable way to sneak out of anywhere.

"Link, I need you to stand there and get me up, got it?" I command, pointing to the spot right underneath the vent.

"Wha'? But why- Oh, _come on,_ Zel!" He frowns. "Can't we just leave out the front door, Zelda? It would be easier, wouldn't it?" He pulls his hand out of mine and crosses his arms, turning away from me and mumbling, "And I'm shorter than you, remember? I can't lift you up that easy."

I stifle my laughter and turn around. "Link, don't be a wimp! Just because you're a little shorter doesn't mean you can get out of adventuring!"

"B-But _why-,"_

"We can't go through the front door 'cause it's not _sneaky_ enough. We gotta be sneaky." I flash a triumphant grin and put my hands on my hips.

"…Fine."

I beam and hug him. "Thanks, Link!"

He makes a few incoherent, flustered noises and pushes out of my embrace, but I don't worry about it. He's just embarrassed by that kind of stuff.

How would we reach the vent, though? We're not nearly tall enough to reach the top… I guess we could stand on the chair and do it?

I grab the chair at my desk and set it down at a good spot before turning to Link. "Get on the chair and then I'll climb on your shoulders. We gotta be careful though, got it?"

His eyebrows are drawn in and he's shuffling his feet and he's _still_ twiddling his fingers, "But that's really dangerous, right? What if you fall and hurt yourself?"

I sigh. "That's why we gotta be careful, Link!"

He pouts and looks off to the side. "Okay, then…"

"Good."

He climbs onto the chair and hunches down so that I can get on his back. I clamber on and then settle on his shoulders, bracing myself against the back of chair and holding onto his hair.

His hair's really soft. Like a baby Remlit.

"Y-You ready?" He pants.

Maybe this _was_ a bad idea? Link's really small and weak and he has that problem with his stamina or somethin' like that…

"Yeah, but are you okay, Link-," I start to say but Link grunts and straightens his back, grabbing onto my ankles and wobbling.

"C-Come on, Zel, now you gotta stand up-,"

"I know, I know! Just wait a minute!"

He lets go of my left ankle and I carefully maneuver my foot onto his shoulder, concentrating _very_ intensely. He grabs hold of it again after I've placed it firmly down.

One down, one more to go.

"Okay, this is gonna be the hard one, alright?" I warn.

"I-I know."

He lets go of my right ankle and I oh so carefully move it up onto his shoulder before I sway a bit too far and _oh, no, I'm about to fall-_

But I grab onto his hair and he pulls me back to safety and I have my feet on his shoulders now so wahoo!

"We did it!"

" _Ow, ow,_ y-yup!"

He's running short on breath now, so I should probably hurry up. I probably look really awkward too, I'm hunched over, hands on his head, butt sticking up in the air.

"Hold on tight, okay?" I remind, not letting go of his head yet. "I don't wanna fall and wake up Papa."

"G-Got it."

I let go of his hair and stand upright.

"Whoa…"

Everything looks a lot cooler from up here but I can't focus on that because I have to pull myself into the vent and also it's really hard to keep my balance.

I look up at the little hole in the ceiling. I can probably reach that if I stretch far enough.

I strain for the edge of the vent, fingers _almost_ touching it but not quite. I gotta get on my tip toes.

"Link, I'm gonna get on my tip toes, okay? Be _really_ careful!"

"I _know,_ hurry up, please!"

Oh, gosh, Link's getting annoyed. I hafta do this fast.

I stand on my tip toes and I'm tall enough to hit the edge now, yes! I grab hold of the edge and curl my fingers around.

"I got it, Link!"

"R-Really? C-Can you pull yourself up?"

Oh, no… I hadn't thought of that.

"I don't think so…"

Link pants and wheezes beneath me before saying, "I'll push you up, so you _have_ to pull yourself up, got it? One chance only."

"Got it!"

He moves his hands to the soles of my boots and I grab hold of the edge, preparing.

"Now!"

He pushes up and I clamber into the tiny space, dragging my feet in and flopping to the ground.

I pull my elbows in in a triumphant pose. "Yes!"

Now to get Link in.

I manage to turn around in the small vent and bend over the vent, leaning upside down out of the hole. Link's sitting down, sweating and breathing hard.

"Link? Your turn…" I say, dangling my arms down.

He looks up at me and smiles. "Okay. One sec, lemme get back up."

He stands back up on the seat and reaches up, grabbing my hands after he gets on _his_ tippy toes, and I pull him up into the vent with me.

"There we go!" I whisper-shout, turning back around. "Now we gotta get outside."

We crawl through the tiny space, me at the lead.

"Zel, I found a rupee."

"Ew, leave that thing there, who _knows_ who touched it?"

"But it's a blue one."

"…We'll get it on the way back."

"Okay."

We finally reach the end of the little crawlspace, the steamy place right above the baths. I press my fingers to my lips and make a _ssshhh_ noise at Link, quietly.

There's a circular grate right in front of us, where the steam rises up and comes from, and if somebody's in the bath, they could hear us and then that'd be _bad_ because it's _always_ Papa who's in the bath this late at night.

" _Hmm… Hmm hmm hmm~…"_

The chimney is over there, good thing the ladder's still there from the grate replacement, so we make our way over to it and climb out of the little area, trying to ignore Papa singing the Ballad of the Goddess.

We climb out of the chimney, _finally,_ and sit on the rim. It's still really dark outside; practically no one is out.

The stars twinkle up in the sky, oh, hey, there're the Goddess Stars, the green one and the blue one and the red one!

"Link, look! Din's Star, Nayru's Star, and-,"

"Farore's Star." Link finishes my sentence and grins.

I nod and smile. "Yup. C'mon, let's head on down."

I twist around a bit so that I can slide down the chimney, arms and legs wrapped around the building, and slide down, landing at the bottom on my butt and laughing.

Link can't seem to get in the same position that I was in and he's looking nervous and kinda mad at himself.

"Z-Zelda, I can't-,"

He slips and accidentally lets go of the rim, falling _slowly, slowly-_

I run around the chimney and underneath him, diving and catching him at the very last second. We're both sent sprawling out across the ceiling, dusty and bruised.

"Caught 'cha!" I beam at him.

He blushes and looks away. "…'nks."

I know he meant to say ' _thanks,'_ and even though it doesn't even sound _close_ to it, I know what he meant and that's all that matters.

"You're welcome."

We make our way down the vines and hop the fence, running through the plaza and down to the river.

I gasp. "Link, Link, _look! Fireflies!"_

Link stumbles up behind me and crouches over, panting and wheezing. "Z-Zelda, next time, _wait for me!"_

"Never mind that, Link!" I cry out, waving my arms around. "Fireflies!"

Starry Fireflies dance happily around the river, their lights reflecting across the water like stars against the night sky.

Huh.

I wonder if that's why their called Starry Fireflies.

"Whoa…"

Link's behind me now, and his big blue eyes are wide with awe.

"Zelda, this is…"

I grin at him. "I know, right?"

I run up to the bank and start chasing after the fireflies, trying to catch one in my hands but they keep flying away from me and it's so _beautiful._

"Hey, come back!"

Link chuckles and sits down at the bank, drawing his knees in and hugging them.

"Aw, I almost caught it that time, Link!"

"Yup."

I run after one and trip, falling face first into the sand. I sit back up and shake the sand out of my hair, kind of like what Remlits do after they get wet, but I get up again and keep running.

It takes a while, maybe longer than I imagined.

"Look, Link! I caught one!"

I trot over to him and hold out my cupped hands. I can feel it in my hands, fluttering around, so I open it and let it fly off.

"See? Wasn't it pretty- Link?"

Link's curled up in a ball, breaths even and his eyes shut. He mumbles something in his sleep and curls even farther into himself, his forehead pressed against his knees.

Goddess, he's such a sleepy baby.

I tip toe over to him and reach my hand out to shake him awake, but I falter and my hand twitches back.

Who am I to wake him up? I have no right to do that, after all he's done for me.

 _The lion deserves his rest._

And I stop and wonder where that came from because what's a lion?

I sit down next to him, moving his head into my lap gently so that I don't wake him up, and smooth his hair out of his eyes. He squirms and mumbles something in his sleep, burying his face into my stomach.

He likes pushing his face into soft things for some reason.

It's cute, though, so I don't mind.

I wonder if singing him a lullaby will make him sleep better? I always have the one he wrote for me, my lullaby. He flipped the Ballad of the Goddess around, added a new part to it and called it a new song and he thinks I didn't notice, even though I did. I didn't tell him that I did though.

I start humming it and before long I feel my eyelids drooping and my head bobbing and even though I know that I shouldn't fall asleep outside because Papa'll catch us and be mad, I curl up around Link and fall fast asleep.

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 **A/N:** see i can write fluff **review** if you wanna bbye


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